Grenade attack suspects fall

ELEVEN people, including a village official, tagged as suspects in the grenade attack early this week were arrested by police in Zamboanga City.

The targets of the attack, a hotel owner and her companion (not couple as reported earlier), escaped unscathed while two people, a jeepney conductor and a cigarette vendor, were wounded during the incident that happened around 5 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Canelar road and Governor Camins Avenue, Zamboanga City.

Nine of the 11 suspects were arrested in a follow-up operation after two of their companions revealed the identities and whereabouts of the others, the police said.

Arrested by responding policemen just after the attack were Gary Candido, 20, and Albert Perez, 22, who, while riding tandem on a motorcycle, tossed two grenades into the Nissan Navara vehicle driven by Hadja Ferdausa Karim, the owner of Blue Shark Hotel.

The nine other arrested suspects were identified as Aldasser Muallam, 24; Sherman Jailani, 22; Muamar Muallam, 33; Vincent Carrasco; Jul-Amin Abdula, 22; Jinul Uddin; Mohammad Alkhalidz Amisali, 20; Lindin Uddin, 18; and Kent Ramos.

Candido and Perez were nabbed by policemen manning the traffic at the junction of Governor Camins and Mayor Vitaliano Agan Avenues located more than a hundred meters away from the explosion site, the police said.

The arrest of Candido and Perez led to the arrest of the nine other suspects in a follow-up operation in Logoy Grande, Talon-Talon village.

The rear portion of Karim’s vehicle was damaged although only one of the two grenades exploded, the police said.

Karim and her companion, Hadja Farcia Radja, were unscathed while Ronaldo Dagalea, 32, a cigarette vendor, and Rodid Bejerano, 25, a passenger jeep conductor, sustained shrapnel wounds.

Dagalea and Bejerano happened to be near Karim’s vehicle at the time of the incident, the police said.

Business rivalry is eyed as the motive of the incident. The police are conducting thorough investigation to unmask the culprits.